The toll of school shootings since Newtown

Gary Varvel illustration that appeared in the media shortly after the shootings in Newtown Ct.

Jim Brady passed away today. However his tireless efforts to make America safer from gun violence goes on. It is with Mr. Brady’s activism in mind that I am posting the following piece.

The list of gun events in schools below was compiled by CNN. It reflects school shootings since the shootings at Sandy Hook School. Other shootings have occurred in schools but this list reflects those that are true mass murders using a gun or guns as the tools of death.

At the bottom of the list I am posting the link to the websites of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Sandy Hook Promise. They are both extremely active in the cause to support common-sense gun legislation and they are an excellent source for further information or to get involved in a meaningful way. I encourage you to visit these websites.

1. January 10, 2013 — Taft Union High School in Taft, California: A 16-year-old student opened fire in class. He was targeting two classmates who he felt had bullied him, law enforcement said. One student was injured. The shooter was placed into custody after a teacher and campus supervisor persuaded the student to put down his firearm.

2. January 15, 2013 — Stevens Institute of Business and Arts in St. Louis, Missouri: A part-time student shot and injured a school employee then apparently shot himself, according to St. Louis police.

3. January 31, 2013 — Price Middle School in Atlanta, Georgia: A 14-year-old was shot in the head outside his school, police said. His mother told CNN affiliate WSB-TV that he was taken to the hospital. Atlanta Public Schools announced that another student had been taken into custody after the 1:50 p.m. shooting.

4. April 12, 2013 — New River Community College in Christianburg, Virginia: An 18-year-old student drove to the school’s campus inside a mall and began shooting at 1:55 p.m. on a Friday, police said. He wounded two women.

5. June 7, 2013 — Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California: A gunman killed four people during a rampage that began at a home near the college campus, police said. He opened fire in the residence where police discovered two bodies, then the gunman shot at a passing car and car-jacked another. The gunman forced the driver to drive onto the campus and shot two people in a passing vehicle, police said. Another victim was shot outside the campus library, authorities said. The gunman was killed by authorities.

6. August 20, 2013 — Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, in Decatur, Georgia: A gunman fired shots and barricaded himself inside the elementary school. Antoinette Tuff, who worked in the front office, was hailed as a hero for engaging suspect Michael Brandon Hill. She managed to talk him into into giving up, and no one was injured, police said.

7. August 30, 2013 — Carver High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina: A student injured another during a shooting that occurred at 2:45 p.m. during a planned fire drill, CNN affiliate WXII reported.

8. October 21, 2013 — Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nevada: A 12-year-old opened fire with a handgun he took from his parents, police say. Jose Reyes injured two students and killed Mike Landsberry, a teacher and Afghanistan war veteran, authorities said. Reyes killed himself.

9. December 13, 2013 — Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado: Karl Halverson Pierson opened fire on a Friday inside his suburban Denver high school, police said. The 18-year-old allegedly shot Claire Davis, a 17-year-old senior, who later died at a hospital. Law enforcement said that Pierson apparently wanted revenge against a faculty member because of a “confrontation or disagreement.”

10. January 9, 2014 — Liberty Technology Magnet High School in Jackson, Tennessee: A 16-year-old student shot a classmate in the leg as classes were being dismissed for the day, police said, according to CNN affiliate WBBJ. The student was treated for his gunshot wound, WBBJ said.

11. January 14, 2014 — Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, New Mexico: A 12-year-old boy walked into the school gym, pulled a shotgun out of a bag and fired at students waiting for the school day to begin, authorities said. The boy wounded two.

12. January 21, 2014 — Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana: Student Cody M. Cousins, 23, opened fire in the basement of the Electrical Engineering Building, according to the university. Cousins allegedly killed Andrew F. Boldt, the school said, and both were listed as seniors.
The school’s police chief said that Cousins left the building right after the shooting, and a city police officer arrested him. Cousins was “booked on a preliminary charge of murder,” Purdue Police Chief John Cox said.

13. January 24, 2014 — South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina: A manhunt kicked off after a student Brandon Robinson, 20, was shot to death at the school, authorities said.
“He was a very nice young man,” South Carolina State University President Thomas Elzey said. “And it hurts. It hurts us all.” Police arrested Justin Bernard Singleton, 19, and charged him with Robinson’s killing, according to a statement from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

14. May 23, 2014 — University of California, Santa Barbara in Isla Vista, California: Elliot Rodger, 22, stabbed to death three people in his apartment, police said. Then Rodger fired into a deli and killed a young man inside the shop and shot to death two sorority sisters.
Cheng Yuan Hong, 20; George Chen, 19; Weihan Wang, 20; Katherine Cooper, 22; Veronika Weiss, 19; and Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20, lost their lives. Others were injured. Rodger committed suicide, leaving behind a long, hateful essay.

15. June 5, 2014 — Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington: A 26-year-old man who was not a student at the school was tackled by a student security guard after he killed one person and wounded two others, police said. Once the suspect was on the ground, other students jumped on top of him, according to authorities.

Police told CNN affiliate KIRO that Aaron Ybarra was fascinated with school shootings and told investigators he had visited Colorado’s Columbine High School where two students killed 12 students and a teacher in 1999.
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